Trees

from a tree’s perspective Aspens are a blur of activity in the shape of a lightning bolt. other trees take time to concentrate their trunks, while Aspen willingly sheds his lower branches to spin higher out of the shade, toward the sun.

those lower branches will be useless anyway among surrounding evergreen conifers. where branches once jutted, Aspens now observe the snowy world through ocular scars.

What looks like an entire grove is in fact, below the ground, a single organism.

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when a tree dies in the woods, it doesn’t necessarily fall. it may remain standing, its layers slowly eroding, revealing the vortical substratum that underlies the formation of its cells and ensures stability in all growth.

in some special places where earth, waters, and sky unite, we may witness increased evidence of the raw twisting power of this energy grid upon which the flesh of things forms.

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to minimize fear while learning to ride snow, a safe environment must be created.

wide trails are cut through the glades, where we come and learn to get our rhythms right, trust our body, trust our edges, feel the speed, discover the point of stillness* in the midst of motion.

the safety, however, is fleeting, and during the course of some hours the turns, the slope, the sun and wind begin to form obstacles in the snow.

under cover of darkness the snowcats crawl up the hill, the machines restoring a synthetic flattened order. tomorrow morning we can return and groove our turns to the rhythms of the beats in our headphones, in perfectly groomed, predictable, obstacle-free safety.

but in the maturation process of every snowist, there comes a time to leave order and safety behind.

* – the word stillness here is used in the sense of being in a state free of tensions and resistance, a state of effortlessness, love, and flow.

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trees.

they stand or sway in ponderous temporal contrast to all the fast paced action swarming around, through, and over them. they give off a sense of knowing, of experience, of stoic benevolence.

they inspire me to stop and absorb their presence. i sit, listening to faintly creaking conversations, and feel the rhythms of heartbeat mind and breath decelerate.

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there are several major factors that serve to push the snowist away from the open piste and into the trees, but for the sake of brevity (such as is possible after typing a thousand words) here we’ll only touch upon the most immediate of them.

what follows is an analogous perspective in the form of a somewhat double spaced essay.

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Evolution of a Free Rider

riding snow is a martial art.

as in other martial arts, it begins with a whole system of progression involving colors and forms and the careful studying of paths.

the ultimate goal of mastering the system, in riding as in ancient martial art philosophy, is to transcend it, so that it never actually need be used.

when a rider no longer requires carefully pre-planned route selection, the time instinctively looms nigh for him to transition away from the relative safety of the piste. He has now earned the right to be called “Free Rider”.

Evolutionary influences on riding

having entered the domain of Natural Terrain, our rider is faced with a daunting prospect: his carving technique, so tightly honed riding mapped trails, has left him. in its place, familiar tensions return and old fears hijack his ability to turn.

he must begin again, very cautiously, where evolutionary process begins.

evolution on all levels employs a mechanism that can be referred to as overcoming; first a challenge is presented by environment, and organism must find a way to adapt. in light of this, we can gauge beneficial environmental influence on our rider by his ability to achieve effortlessness in the presence of dangers posed by Natural Terrain; in other words, by the rider’s ability to overcome the aforementioned fears and tensions.

in instances of encountering Natural Terrain, such as

many dangers present themselves. chief among them are these two:

a) the limitation (or shortening) of path visibility considerably lowers – in some cases completely eliminating – any sense of predictability. the rider’s sense of security plummets and with it his faith in the capabilities of body and board. this chain reaction throws open wide the door for Fear, ever-quick to assume control of muscle groups and postures, responsible for the return of habitual tensions.

this challenge results in a tremendous positive influence on the rider. to become a Free Rider, he must overcome the challenge of lower visibility and plummeting faith by mastering the craft of unbroken conscious flow. in such a state, no matter what features or obstacles were suddenly revealed around the last turn, the rider’s gaze never rests on them long enough for fear to get a toehold. instead consciousness is constantly pushing the gaze forward to map out the next turn. thus our rider maintains effortless posture free of the resistance of tensions.

b) the rider’s practiced and physically established rhythm is broken by trees presenting themselves as physical obstacles and enforcing a slope-conscious flow.

here the rider encounters a paradox.

in Natural Terrain, the only way to maintain control is to relinquish the need to control.

the ability to turn at will (mastered on groomed terrain) is subjugated by features and qualities of Natural Terrain. the rider must conform his turns to the lay of the snow; thus the will of the rider must give way to the greater will of Nature, dictating where the rider may turn and in which direction, and controlling his speed between turns as he points his plank and flattens his body to pass between tight trees.

potential lines snake harmoniously through whatever openings present themselves in the moment, unveiling heretofore unimaginable options and access to untrammeled snowy perfection. such promptings must be obeyed by the free rider without hesitations being allowed to sprout from their seeds of internal fears and tensions. to overcome this resistance, the rider must consciously evolve the mental presence of receptivity to the mandates of Natural Terrain.

in other words, where the piste rider exercises his will to control rhythm and timing, the evolved off-piste rider must allow Terrain to dictate his turns, thereby syncing his rhythm harmoniously with the greater scales of flow of Land, Tree, and Snow.

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here assertive personal control is being replaced by receptivity. from this a certain association – through subtle cultural connotations – with passivity or laxity may arise; the reader is advised to take note that receptivity and the willingness to trust and follow the guidance of Nature in the face of uncertainty requires a very high level of actively conscious intensity. it’s important to clarify that any mention of effortlessness or ease connotes not laxity but points to a liberation from tensions, resistances, and fears, heretofore unnoticed, that may have unconsciously dictated the rider’s actions.

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having thus evolved, our Free Rider now views many aspects of skiing from a fresh perspective. the map gains new significance for him and becomes more useful as he gains knowledge and mastery of the Natural Terrain it represents in reality. he realizes that the groomed trails he formerly believed comprised the entirety of the resort are in fact just a small fraction, and that the real soul of the mountain is much more easily found in the dark unknown sections between them. he finds his knowledge very small, and the world so great with so much in it yet to learn. new dimensions are opened to his eyes, always in plain sight, but never before included in his consciousness.

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the beneficial influence of Trees on riding conditions

the wintry silence in the trees invites the silence of snow.
protected from winds, the snow settles in bountiful pillows.
the challenge naturally keeps out all but the most prepared.
unspoiled abundance invites Juan who is ready in sound mind and body to heed its call.

—–

snowy rewards await the Free Rider. a new dimension opens before him: depth.

he watches a crow alight on a treetop; orienting himself in a similar angle, he descends as if floating on clouds; effortlessly, gracefully, yet exploding with bountiful energy.

the overwhelming bliss vibrating in his chest is outwardly reflected in his omnipresent smile.